MIND AND BODY There`s more to meditation than just closing ones eyes and an understanding of this technique demands an understanding of our mental realm. The subtle state of mind, which is the ultimate stage of meditation, requires a tremendous amount of energy to reach. An absolute harmony between our gross physical realm, sensual realm and our life energy is the prerequisite of a meditative state of mind.

Traditional perceptions of our mental make-up are uncommonly useful in understanding the workings of the mind. According to ayurveda and yoga, both the mind and the body are made up of the `Five Great Elements` (Panchabhutas) of earth (prithvi), water (jal), fire (agni or tej), air (vayu) and ether or space (akash).

But in spite of such composition, they have absolutely opposite elemental structures. While the body is made up of the heavier elements of earth…

The working of God’s will has provided the whole plan of salvation. We labor in the sphere of God’s will. God presses His will upon ours. We feel the force of divine energy quickening our wills into activity. However, we are responsible for the condition of our souls. According to Archibald T. Robertson (1863-1934):

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in…

But how about attacking the physical sensors. The mind is a powerful thing and you can use it convince your body it is sick or healthy.

Meditation and Taste

You can also deceive your mind into sensing taste. Self-control is about total control of your sensors so if you are up for the challenge try this out.

The Meditation

Prepare yourself for meditation as I went through in my previous post, low noise, comfortable position, deep slow breaths , release the bad energy and fill yourself with the good, be at a happy state of mind.

Psychology of taste

Taste is about smell and texture so when meditating imagine yourself holding a lemon in your hand.

1. roll it around in your fingers feeling the bumps and hardness of it’s skin.

2. bring it towards your nose and smell the scent of lemon.

3. bring it back out and roll it in your fingers one more time.

4. Finally take a slow bite of that lemon and you will taste the sourness on your tongue.

How did you go?

Depending on how slow and focused you were you should have tasted that lemon.

Give me some feedback and tell me how you went.

Next post I will show you how far physical senses can go whilst meditating.

I have a friend that meditates regularly and sends me audio tapes and books about how to meditate involving Chakras and astral projection and other stuff that I find hard to get my head around.

I never mediated except for Dhikr which as a muslim is an act of stopping and remembering God before doing something. But it is also an escape from the world; a small prayer.

While remembering God I’d feel all else fade away except myself and God, but I don’t see God just feel that He sees me. (Just like normal prayer).

Meditation; as my friend told me was to empty your mind and find peace within yourself.

Now I felt I already had peace as during prayer we are to ignore all other distractions, we cannot even break wind because we would become dirty and have to perform ablutions again.

Islamic Meditation?

Now I don’t want to turn my teachings of meditation into Islamic Meditation so all I’m talking about here is how I got to my techniques where I came from.

In Islam we don’t need meditation because our prayer is intense personal and our Dhikr (remembrance) is intense and personal.

My reason for getting into meditation was to relax while not in prayer and to try some ideas that I had; to play with my mind-body connection.

The Meditation Empty and fill

I just sat with my legs crossed and back straight and closed my eyes making sure that the phones were off and I wouldn’t be distracted for a while. One thing I noticed about the meditation position is that you should be at a point of relaxation and a little pain so that you do not fall asleep. So sit up straight and be a little stretched.

I continuously breath deeply and slowly in through my mouth and out through my mouth. (It’s just how I do it, you can breath through your nose if you wish.)

After I got nice and calm;

The first meditation

I close my eyes and picture myself sitting in a grass field that extends in each direction indefinitely.

I feel only I exist as well as God or a light from above.

I breathed all of the air slowly into my lungs imagining all of my negativity running up my legs and arms towards my chest and collecting inside me. then I’d exhale it all back out slowly down my arms and legs and out through my toes and fingertips.

I continue this until I feel empty of all negativity.

The first growing

First I gear my mind towards happiness and smile while I inhale all of the positive power in the universe. I feel it running up and fingers and toes along my legs and arms and filling my body.

This was the first meditation I did and still do. I have many more advanced ones to share but I’ll leave those for other posts as it is just too much information to take in all at once.

The fragility of life

Throughout our lives we witness all things perish whether they be plant, animal or people; if life teaches us something it is that all life ends. Therefore life is not immortal and when we look at our flesh bodies it is all too clear to us that we are not built for immortality.

As mortals life is then a short one, so for what purpose are we here then?

There is no doubt in my mind that this life is transition, a test to reveal our true character.

A convincing illusion

The material test of life

The situations we face bring out our real ‘self’ so that we can know ourselves and God can judge us based on the decisions we make.

The soul is immortal and uses our flesh body to interact with the world, when our body (brain specifically) is damaged we find it difficult to interact with the world. It is my belief that memories, intellect and our complete personality are part of our soul and it is only due to our weak fleshy brain that we forget things. Science is still trying to find where we store memories in our brain but is no closer to a definite answer due to the ‘real’ mind not being material in nature.

Do we take our memories with us?

Near Death Experiences

The Near Death Experience (NDE) is a very interesting thing to read up on. There continue to be cases of clinically dead persons who claim to experience the same thing, many recollect accessing feelings as well as flashbacks and some experience past, present and future all at once. But how is this all possible when the NDE’s brains show no activity at all? Some who experience NDE’s also recall crossing paths with other loved ones who have passed on, amazing and thought-provoking information.

So what are we?

With all the information out there on the soul’s immortality along with my belief that we must exist as some kind of being, I’d have to say that my description of the immortal soul and its interactions would go something like this:

All that we interpret through our five senses is energy; all matter is broken down into waves. Our body (which is also matter) converts waves into electrical signals that stimulate our brain and either creates images, sounds, feelings, etc. Our perception of this world is limited to our five senses and the health of our entire body. For example if we were to become paralyzed and lose half of our memories, they still remain in our mind, which is part of our soul, our ‘real self’.

Our ‘Real Self’ or Soul is energy, but this energy exists beyond our matter and is not measurable by us.

Having a physical body makes our thoughts and actions subject to time and the health of our bodies, without our physical bodies it seems we don’t experience time and have complete use of the facilities of our soul.

It’s as if our souls are waves of energy shooting around like radio waves, our bodies (including our brain) are transmitters/receivers, which connect us to the world. We are limited to what we can access due to the limits of our transmitter/receiver, not due to the limits of our soul. With this understanding it is possible that there is something out there that connects us all together when our souls are free from our fleshy bodies. There must be a transmitter/receiver that allows us to access our thoughts, memories etc when outside the body, could this great transmitter/receiver be God? I think it could be a function of God’s power to connect us all together.